Insufficient skills are often mentioned as an impediment to meaningful connectivity.
Because self-reporting of individuals’ ICT skills may be subjective, ICT skills are measured based on whether an individual has recently performed certain activities that require different levels of skill.
In 40 per cent of the countries for which data are available, less than 40 per cent of individuals reported having carried out one of the activities that comprise basic skills, e.g. sending an e-mail with an attachment, in the previous three months.
In just 23 per cent of the countries did more than 60 per cent of individuals report one of the basic skills activities.
As for the standard skills components, such as creating an electronic slide presentation, in almost 70 per cent of the countries less than 40 per cent of individuals had used them in that time.
In only 3 of the 76 countries for which data are available did more than 60 per cent of individuals report performing some of those activities.
Finally, only 15 per cent of the countries had more than 10 per cent of individuals report that they had written a computer program using a specialized programming language in that time.
The available data show large differences in skill levels between age groups and between occupations, but relatively smaller differences between men and women, especially at younger ages.